Bye Bye Beef

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Manure becomes pollutant as its volume grows unmanageable

2010-03-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post March 1, 2010
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer

Nearly 40 years after the first Earth Day, this is irony: The United States has reduced the manmade pollutants that left its waterways dead, discolored and occasionally flammable.

But now, it has managed to smother the same waters with the most natural stuff in the world.

Animal manure, a byproduct as old as agriculture, has become an unlikely modern pollution problem, scientists and environmentalists say. The country simply has more dung than it can handle: Crowded together at a new breed of megafarms, livestock produce three times as much waste as people, more than can be recycled as fertilizer for nearby fields.

That excess manure gives off air pollutants, and it is the country's fastest-growing large source of methane, a greenhouse gas.

And it washes down with the rain, helping to cause the 230 oxygen-deprived "dead zones" that have proliferated along the U.S. coast. In the Chesapeake Bay, about one-fourth of the pollution that leads to dead zones can be traced to the back ends of cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys.

Despite its impact, manure has not been as strictly regulated as more familiar pollution problems, like human sewage, acid rain or industrial waste. The Obama administration has made moves to change that but already has found itself facing off with farm interests, entangled in the contentious politics of poop.

In recent months, Oklahoma has battled poultry companies from Arkansas in court, blaming their birds' waste for slimy and deadened rivers downstream. In Florida, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed first-of-their-kind limits on pollutants found in manure.

In the Senate, Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) has proposed a bill that would allow farmers in the Chesapeake watershed to cut pollution more than required and sell the extra "credits" to other polluters. The EPA, in the middle of an overhaul for the failed Chesapeake cleanup, also has threatened to tighten rules on large farms.

"We now know that we have more nutrient pollution from animals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed" than from human sewage, said J. Charles Fox, the EPA's new Chesapeake czar. "Nutrients" is the scientific word for the main pollutants found in manure, treated sewage, and runoff from fertilized lawns. They are the bay's chief evil, feeding unnatural algae blooms that cause dead zones.

Around the country, agricultural interests have fought back against moves like these, saying that new rules on manure could mean crushing new costs for farmers.

"It's clearly going to put a squeeze on people that they've always said they didn't want to squeeze," including family-run farms, said Don Parrish of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The story of manure is already a gloomy counterpoint to the triumphs in fighting pollution since the first Earth Day in 1970. An air pollutant that causes acid rain has been cut by 56 percent. By one measure, the output from sewage plants got 45 percent cleaner.

But, according to Cornell University researchers, the amount of one key pollutant -- nitrogen -- entering the environment in manure has increased by at least 60 percent since the 1970s.

"We've dealt with the kind of conventional pollutants," that helped spark the first Earth Day, said Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Now, we see the things that are eating our lunch, if you will, are natural products . . . that are just overloading the system."

The reasons for manure's rise as a pollutant have to do, environmentalists say, with a shift in agriculture and a soft spot in the law.

In recent decades, livestock raising has shifted to a smaller number of large farms. At these places, with thousands of hogs or hundreds of thousands of chickens, the old self-contained cycle of farming -- manure feeds the crops, then the crops feed the animals -- is overwhelmed by the large amount of waste.

The result in farming-heavy places has been too much manure and too little to do with it. In the air, that extra manure can dry into dust, forming a "brown fog." It can emit substances that contribute to climate change.

And it can give off a smell like a punch to the stomach.

"You have to cover your face just to go from the house to the car," said Lynn Henning, 52, a farmer in rural Clayton, Mich., who said she became an environmental activist after fumes from huge new dairies gave her family headaches and burning sinuses. The way that modern megafarms produce it, Henning said, "Manure is no longer manure. Manure is a toxic waste now."

In the water, the chemicals in manure don't poison life, like pesticides or spilled oil. Instead, they create too much life, and the wrong kinds.

"You get Miracle-Gro for your water," said David Guest, a lawyer for the group Earthjustice who has fought for tougher limits on pollution in Florida.

The chemicals in manure serve as fertilizer for unnatural algae blooms. They drain away oxygen as they decompose. Scientists say the number of suffocating dead zones -- oxygen-depleted areas where even worms and clams climb out of the mud, desperate to respire -- has grown from 16 in the 1950s to at least 230 today. The Chesapeake's is usually the country's third largest, after the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Erie.

The law, however, has treated manure and other agricultural pollutants differently than pollutants from smokestacks and sewer pipes.

The EPA does not set a hard cap on how much manure can wash off farms, instead issuing guidelines that apply only to the largest operations. There, the rules might limit how much manure farmers can spread on individual fields, for instance, or order them to plant grassy strips along riverbanks to filter manure-laden runoff. Even that level of regulation has only been in place since the 1990s.

But now, the EPA has signaled an intent to tighten its grip.

Last Monday, the agency announced that reducing manure-laden runoff was one of its six "national enforcement initiatives." New rules went into effect in December that will impose even tighter restrictions on large farms.

Last fall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture also considered a change to its guidelines, which would have limited the amount of manure farmers could apply to their fields. But then it scrapped that idea, saying the issue needed more study.

Last week on the Eastern Shore, where farmers raised 568 million chickens last year, the problem of excess manure was still big enough to see from the road.

"See how dark that one pile is? That's chicken manure," said Kathy Phillips, 61, an environmental activist who patrols the peninsula for piles of manure stored outdoors. As a steady rain fell, she said that pollutants were probably leaching off that mound -- as tall as a van and the color of dark-roast coffee-- and into ditch water that would eventually reach the Pocomoke River, then the Chesapeake.

Phillips usually surveys these piles from the air. She has a mental map of dozens of these off-smelling mounds.

"I don't want to be the Poop Lady," said Phillips, who got into environmentalism because she loved to surf Ocean City's beaches. "But, you know, somebody had to talk about this. It's like this dirty little secret."

A few miles north, the poultry giant Perdue has come up with one way to dispose of excess manure. At a $13 million plant outside Seaford, Del., tons of poultry manure are dried, heated to kill off bacteria and compressed into pellets of organic fertilizer that is sold to golf courses or homeowners.

"This is sort of a reverse chicken," said Perdue spokesman Luis Luna, as bulldozers moved manure below. "In a chicken, the food goes in and the poop goes out. Here, the poop comes in and the plant food goes out."

That helps Chesapeake's manure problem, but it isn't the whole solution. Luna said there is enough manure on the Shore to keep more plants like this running-- but Perdue isn't planning to build more yet. So far, the fertilizer doesn't sell well enough to make that cost-effective.

A Ban on Hormonal Meat is Three Decades Overdue

2010-02-03T06:48:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO, IL, February 2, 2010 --/WORLD-WIRE/--

On January 29, 2010, with three other scientific experts, Samuel S. Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, filed a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Petition seeking an urgent ban on hormonal meat, as it poses unrecognized risks of hormonal cancers.

The Petition requests the FDA to take the following action:

Require producers of hormonal meat to label it with an explicit warning such as "Produced with the use of sex hormones, and poses increased risks of breast, prostate, and testis cancers.

Prohibit the routine implantation of sex hormone pellets under the ear skin of cattle on entry into feedlots 100 days prior to slaughter. The object of the implants is to increase meat production by about 50 pounds per animal, and profitability by about 10%.

Ban hormonal meat. The hormones in past and current use include the natural: testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone; and the synthetic: trenbolone, zeranol, and melengesterol.

STATEMENT OF GROUNDS

Based on the scientific literature, besides World Health Organization (WHO) reports, there is explicit evidence that the use of sex hormones to increase meat production poses serious dangers to consumers," Dr. Epstein warns in the Petition.

"Of particular concern are the increased risks of hormonal cancers since 1975: breast by 23%, prostate by 60%, and testes by 60%," he emphasizes.

For these reasons, the Petition urges the FDA to take the following actions, now decades overdue:

Recognize that hormonal meat poses "imminent hazards" to the total U.S. population.

Take prompt, and decades overdue, regulatory action to eliminate the use of sex hormones in meat production.

Dr. Epstein explains that some three decades ago, Dr. Roy Hertz, then Director of Endocrinology of the National Cancer Institute and world authority on breast and other hormonal cancers, warned of cancer risks due to the use of estrogenic cattle implants, particularly for the breast.

Dr. Hertz emphasized that these implants increase normal hormonal levels, and that such imbalance causes reproductive cancers. Hertz also warned of the essentially uncontrolled and unregulated use of these extremely potent biological agents, no levels of which can be regarded as safe.

"These warnings are even more apt today, particularly in view of the FDA's longstanding and reckless failure to ban hormonal meat," Dr. Epstein declares.

The misleading assurances since 1979, by the FDA and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on the safety of hormonal meat remain unchanged, Dr. Epstein declares. Of further concern are longstanding problems linked to conflicts of interest in senior agency personnel and their consultants. As clearly evidenced in a series of General Accountability Office investigations and Congressional hearings, the USDA and FDA have failed to take any regulatory action to protect the public from the dangers of hormonal meat, Dr. Epstein points out.

Dr. Epstein cites a 1986 report, "Human Food Safety and Regulation of Animal Drugs," unanimously approved by the House Committee on Government Operations, which concluded that the "FDA has consistently disregarded its responsibility - has repeatedly put what it perceives are interests of verterinarians and the livestock industry ahead of its legal obligation to protect consumers - jeopardizing the health and safety of consumers meat, milk, and poultry."

In response to questions on hormonal meat raised in February 1996 by the European Commission, the USDA responded with assurances that less than 0.25% of animals tested annually proved positive for "residue violations." Dr. Epstein asserts, "These criticisms remain equally appropriate today. In fact, meat is still not monitored for sex hormone levels by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; The Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medalist for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention; and author of over 200 scientific articles and 15 books on the causes and prevention of cancer, including the groundbreaking The Politics of Cancer (1979), and Toxic Beauty (2009).

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.
Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine
University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health
Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition

http://www.preventcancer.com/

To subscribe to the Cancer Prevention Coalition click here http://ens-news.net/lists/?p=subscribe&id=9

Nicholas Ashford, Ph.D., J.D.
Professor of Technology and Policy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ronnie Cummins
Executive Director
Organic Consumers Association

Quentin D. Young, M.D.
Chairman
Health & Medicine
Policy Research Group
Past President,
American Public Health Association

Organic dairy farms being crushed by factory operations

2010-01-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

Family farmers who produce organic milk are petitioning for the swift adoption of new strict rule-making that would rein in the abuses of a handful of factory farms, which are violating both the spirit and letter of the federal organic law.

The pending rewrite of the organic livestock standards, with an emphasis on assuring compliance with provisions that require grazing for dairy cows, is under review at the Office of Management and Budget, where the administration is being heavily lobbied by industrial farming interests to water down the rules.

To meet the explosive growth in the organic industry, over the last five years a number of large industrial dairies, milking as many as 7,200 cows, have exploited the stellar reputation that organic dairy products have earned in the eyes of consumers who are looking for safer and more nutritious food for their families.

With the flattening of demand for organic food, these giant dairies have flooded the market with cheap milk that is now crushing the family farmers who have built this industry. These CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) are anathema to organic consumers investing in a more environmentally sensitive approach to food production and humane animal husbandry. Ironically, one of the reasons they are willing to pay extra for organic milk is they think that the farmers who produce it are being fairly treated.

The current surplus of organic milk, caused by factory farms, has forced prices down for family farmers. Sadly, there have been reports around the country of a number of suicides of both conventional and organic dairy producers. Some organic farmers are now facing foreclosure, a stark contrast to the economic promise of organics over the past two decades of growth.

Organic farmers are particularly resentful of two corporate players that heavily lobbied the USDA during both the Bush and Obama administrations, attempting to weaken regulatory language that requires dairy cows to be managed in a way that promotes their natural instinctive behaviors, including grazing on open pastures rather than spending most of their lives confined in barns and feedlots.

The largest villain, in the eyes of dairy farmers, is Aurora Dairy. The $100 million corporation owns five “factory farms,” each with thousands of cows, in arid regions of Texas and Colorado. Owning its own manufacturing plant, Aurora packages and ships milk for sale as store-brand products at Walmart and a number of leading supermarket chains. Aurora’s factory farm milk reaches every corner of this country, undercutting ethical farmers and their marketing partners.

Although the president of Aurora Dairy, Mark Retzloff, has heavily contributed to the Democratic Party, President Obama, and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who is now USDA secretary, we trust that the current administration will focus on the suspect practices of his company rather than its past financial and political support.

In what has been described as the largest scandal in the history of the organic industry, in 2007 the USDA found that Aurora had “willfully” violated 14 tenets of the federal organic law, including confining its animals instead of grazing, and bringing illegal conventional cows into its factory farm operations.

The Bush administration let Aurora off without a cent in fines, instead placing the company on a one-year probation. Since then, 19 class-action lawsuits by consumers, charging Aurora with consumer fraud, have been working their way through the federal court system.

Bruce Drinkman, an organic dairy farmer from Glenwood City, Wis., who milks 55 cows, is right when he says:

“It would be a national scandal, as some of us face losing our farms due to the industrial dairy scofflaws, if the Obama administration sides with the ‘bad actors’ in our industry. We are in dire financial straits because of the same kind of unethical competition from factory farms that put so many of our conventional neighbors out of business. We need the president and the USDA on our side!”

By Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute.

Russia Bans Imports of USA Chicken

2010-01-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

Industrial meat is taking a pounding (no pun intended) in overseas markets.

Russia banned imports of U.S. poultry from Jan. 1. Imports cleared by customs before Jan. 19 are permitted.

Russia cites the use of chlorine as the reason for the ban. Consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor says the presence of chlorine in water used to cool poultry results in "the accumulation of by-products dangerous to human health" in and on the surface of the meat.

U.S. meat firms routinely use chlorine to kill bacteria that cause food poisoning. The country says the process is safe.

Russia restricts the use of chlorine in poultry plants to 0.5 parts per million.

E. Coli Beef Recall in California 864,000 Pounds

2010-01-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

January 18, 2010

A Montebello company is recalling 864,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today.

Inspectors from the agency’s Food Safety and Inspection Service found a potential problem while conducting a safety assessment of Huntington Meat Packing Inc. The investigation is continuing.

In the meantime, several products produced between Jan. 5 and 15 are being recalled. And after further review of the company’s records, the same products produced between Feb. 19 and May 15, 2008, are also being recalled.

McDonalds Ammonia Enhanced Pink Slime Hamburgers

2010-01-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

The question to McDonald's corporate website about what's in their hamburger was:

Does McDonalds use Beef Products Inc.'s, (a South Dakota company) hamburger filler product known by some in the meat industry as "pink slime"? The New York Times says you do.

NOTE that I did not say or ask anything about ammonia. Get your pink slime burger at McDonalds.

Their answer:

Hello Ron:

Thank you for contacting McDonald's and for sharing your concerns. I appreciate the opportunity to share the following information with you.

Please know that McDonald's food safety and quality assurance standards are among the highest in the industry. With extensive food safety measures in place throughout the entire supply chain process, McDonald's standards meet or exceed government requirements. McDonald's uses only 100 percent USDA-inspected ground beef in their hamburger patties.

Be assured that we do not add ammonia to our hamburger patties. In fact, ammonia is only used by our suppliers as a processing aid to kill harmful bacteria. This process is approved by the USDA and ensures safe, quality food.

Additionally, ammonia is a basic building block of protein and occurs naturally in beef, both raw and cooked. It is a key component of the flavor of cooked beef. Ammonia is a naturally occurring compound in meats and fish - (fish and shellfish have more than beef). Ammonia is a nitrogen containing compound and so are proteins.

As you may not know, lean beef trimmings are approved by the USDA and are a widely used and well-established industry practice. They are subject to the same stringent standards, and inspection and testing practices, required for all beef used in the production of our hamburger patties.

McDonald's continues to work with its suppliers, local, state and federal agencies, our industry and others, to ensure these standards are rigorously maintained. And, more importantly, that we serve safe, high quality products to every customer, every time they visit our restaurants.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's.

Lisa

McDonald's Customer Response Center

ref#:6578462

Factory Farmed Meat Can Trigger a Global Pandemic

2010-01-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted January 9, 2010.

The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine flu. Billions could die in a deadly flu pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen.

I was intrigued (and disturbed) by a book I just read online -- http://www.birdflubook.org/ -- by Michael Greger, M.D. about the potential of a deadly flu pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen. Greger very clearly delineates how a virus begins, mutates, and becomes dangerous. As with so many problems we are seeing lately -- environmental or health -- factory farmed meat seems to be a big part of the cause. A graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine, Michael Greger, M.D., serves as Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. An internationally recognized lecturer, he has presented at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, testified before Congress, and was an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous "meat defamation" trial. His recent scientific publications in American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, and the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition, and Public Health explore the public health implications of industrialized animal agriculture.

Read the interview here.

Visit the Kathy's website here.

Pink Slime Burgers Laced with Ammonia and E. Coli

2010-01-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

Few who saw the documentary Food Inc. will forget the scene involving Beef Products Inc., a South Dakota company that makes a widely used hamburger filler product. A Beef Products executive invited the Food Inc. crew to record his company’s inner workings. The man is clearly proud of his company’s product. “We think we can lessen the incidence of E. Coli 0157:H7,” he says.

Scraps of cow flesh, swept up from slaughterhouse floors and pulverized into a kind of paste, are moving through the tubes, subjected to a lashings of ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria. “This is our finished product,” the executive declares. He then claims that the product ends up in 70 percent of hamburgers served in the U.S. “In five years we’ll be in 100 percent,” he predicts.

Beef Products buys the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer—fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. It sends the scraps through a series of machines, grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens.

The result, known by some in the industry as “pink slime,” is marketed widely to hamburger makers. The product has three selling points, from what I can tell: 1) it’s really, really cheap; 2) unlike conventional ground beef, which routinely carries E. coli, etc, pink slime is sterilized by the addition of ammonia; and 3) it’s so full of ammonia that it will kill pathogens in the ground beef it’s mixed with.

With the U.S.D.A.‘s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-31-meat-wagon-ammonia-burger/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Who is USDA’s 1st client, the public or the industry?

2009-12-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

In 2000, the Agriculture Department declared it would match the strictest standards in the business. Since then, however, top-tier businesses have evolved even more rigorous standards, while the USDA has lagged behind. It's hard to understand why. Cost? Jack in the Box spent less than an extra penny per pound to make its standards tougher, and most processors can already meet them when asked.

But the USDA doesn't ask, and that's not the only way it shortchanges school kids:

-- The USDA buys meat for the school lunch program from the lowest bidder among those certified to meet USDA standards. But at least one certified bidder — Beef Packers Inc. of Fresno — has recalled tainted meat twice this year and earlier was suspended from the school lunch program three times.

-- The USDA oversaw the two Beef Packers ground beef recalls this year but allowed some meat produced within the recall window to go to the federal school lunch program anyway.

-- The USDA helps egg producers by buying "spent hen" meat from hens past their egg-laying prime and passing it on to the school lunch program. The chicken is so unappealing that Campbell Soup stopped using it more than a decade ago.

-- The USDA does not enforce a law that requires that school cafeterias be inspected twice a year to prevent unsafe practices, even though state and local health authorities fail to do this in more than a quarter of all schools. The law provides no penalties, but it does require schools to give inspection reports to anyone who asks. Couldn't the USDA ask, and post the results online? Alerting parents might be more effective than penalties.

No doubt part of the reason for USDA's laxity is its dual mandate to regulate the agriculture industry while also promoting it. A similar conflict of interest in air safety regulation was eliminated years ago after it was identified as a contributor to plane crashes.

The same should be done with food safety. The USDA's record suggests that it doesn't quite grasp the idea that its most important client is the public it's supposed to protect, not the industries it oversees.

E. coli-tainted Beef 248,000 Pound Recall

2009-12-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

Twenty-one people in 16 states have been infected in recent days with a potentially lethal strain of E. coli bacteria, after consuming beef in restaurants supplied by the same Oklahoma meat company, federal officials said. The outbreak spurred the company, National Steak and Poultry, to voluntarily recall 248,000 pounds of beef December 24.

Nine of the 21 sickened have been hospitalized, the USDA reported. The department has identified cases in six states -- Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.

The recall is considered a "class 1" or a "high health risk" by the USDA, which regulates the meat industry, because among the pathogens that can harm human health, E. coli O157:H7 is one of the most lethal. Even for those who survive, there can be long-term health effects.

Part of the problem is that the USDA really does little to regulate the meat industry.

Part of the solution is stop eating beef.

Cargill's Beef Packers Plant Recalling More Salmonella Beef

2009-12-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

More than 20,000 pounds of beef have been recalled by a California company amid worries the meat is linked to two cases of salmonella, a federal food safety agency said.

Beef Packers Inc., based in Fresno, California, recalled 22,723 pounds of ground beef products produced on September 23, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a statement. The labels on the beef include the establishment number "EST. 31913," the agency said.

The beef was repackaged at a distribution plant in Arizona, then sold under different retail brand names, the agency said. The agency's statement did not identify brand names.

Ground Beef Recalls Since 2007

2009-11-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

With the recent recall of 1,039 pounds of hamburger contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, and the additional 546,000 pounds of hamburger recalled, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. Hamburger recalls since 2007 have now reached 41,958,504 pounds. And, this is not counting another recall from 2008. Then, Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., a Chino, California establishment, voluntarily recalled approximately 143,383,823 pounds of raw and frozen beef products that FSIS had determined to be unfit for human food because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection.

Trick or Treat Half Million Pound Ground Beef Recall

2009-11-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

A voluntary recall was announced Monday for more than half a million pounds of ground beef because it may be contaminated with bacteria linked to at least two deaths, officials said.

Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York, said the recall was issued Saturday for approximately 545,699 pounds of ground beef produced between September 14 and September 16 after the meat was "possibly linked" to E. coli O157:H7.

Eating Animals the Book

2009-10-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

In the new book Eating Animals, author Jonathan Safran Foer wants to make sure you you know that factory farming - which accounts for virtually all meat sold in supermarkets and prepared in restaurants - is almost certainly the single worst thing that humans do to the environment. Changing the way our food is produced begins us; with the choices we make every day.

Here are 10 things you can do to make a difference:

1.Read Eating Animals and ask your friends, family, and coworkers to do the same.

http://www.eatinganimals.com/site/book/

2.In the words of Farm Forward: Eat conscientiously-as few animals as possible, ideally none. More than 99 percent of animal products are produced under factory farm conditions. http://www.farmforward.com/farming-forward/food-choices

3.Support pending state and federal legislation to improve standards for farms. Learn more about legislation aimed to improve conditions for farm animals [ http://www.hsus.org/farm/camp/legislation.html ] and legislation that addresses the effects of farms on our environment [ http://www.waterkeeper.org/ht/d/Contents/cids/275,1383/pid/201 ] and communities [ http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/community/ ].

4.Tell Congress that you want to support alternatives to factory farming. Every year, agribusiness receives billions of dollars in subsidies and grants that make factory farming possible. http://fdn.actionkit.com/cms/sign/Factory_Farm_Bailout/#1

5.Have a conversation with the people who produce your food. If you aren't allowed to see where your food comes from, you probably shouldn't be eating it. http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home

6.Stay informed about current issues in the fight for more humane and sustainable farming. Sign up to receive newsletters from groups like Farm Forward http://www.farmforward.com/ and the Humane Society of the United States http://hsus.org/ You can also follow many of your favorite groups on Twitter.

7.Spread the word! Talk about Eating Animals with your friends, family and colleagues, and encourage them to read up on and these important issues themselves.

8.Support organizations working for change. Check out Jonathan's favorite organizations.

◦Farm Forward - http://www.farmforward.com/
◦Farm Sanctuary - http://www.farmsantuary.org/
◦Food and Water Watch - http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/
◦Food Democracy Now! - http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

◦Humane Society of the United States - http://www.hsus.org/

◦People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - http://www.peta.org/

◦Sierra Club - http://www.sierraclub.org/

◦Sustainable Table - http://www.sustainabletable.org/

◦Waterkeeper Alliance - http://www.waterkeeperalliance.org/

9.Buy products from the most progressive farmers in America. Sustainable Table's Eat Well Guide http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home provides an extensive list of small farmers. We also encourage you to support Frank Reese, whose Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch is featured in Eating Animals. http://www.reeseturkeys.com/

10.Organize your friends and family to place large orders from progressive farmers. For small farmers like Frank Reese, shipping is by far the most expensive aspect of bringing their products to your table. By placing large orders together with your friends, family and colleagues, anyone can afford to eat the most humane and sustainable products in America.

Flaws in Beef Inspection - The Ground Beef Gamble

2009-10-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Stephanie Smith, 22, was paralyzed after being stricken by E. coli in 2007. Officials traced the E. coli to hamburger her family had eaten. Stephanie Smith was in a coma for nine weeks after being infected with E. coli.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

http://www.grist.org/article/warning-this-product-may-cause-sickness-paralysis-and-death

A top official at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service observed that his options were somewhat limited since he had to “look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health.” Note the fact that his phrasing sets the meat industry’s needs at odds with ours—the two can’t be reconciled in his eyes. What does that say about the government’s ability to ensure a safe food supply? No matter how you structure it, the industry now appears too big and too powerful to be regulated. What other explanation is there for the fact that the top food safety job at the USDA remains unfilled if not regulatory paralysis—the meat industry seems to have veto power over its regulators and hasn’t found a federal overseer to its liking.

The High Price of Cheap Food

2009-08-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

Time Magazine Cover Story This Week

The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can't even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. A series of recalls involving contaminated foods this year — including an outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanuts that killed at least eight people and sickened 600 — has consumers rightly worried about the safety of their meals. A food system — from seed to 7‑Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America's obesity epidemic. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. "The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us," says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Cargill's Beef Packers Plant Previously Cited Says AP

2009-08-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

March 2008 inspection records show that USDA auditors found Beef Packer workers using electric prods to urge uncooperative cattle through a small chute that opened to the slaughterhouse. When three cows would not move, workers stunned the animals into unconsciousness “so that they could be pulled through the restrainer to be shackled, hung, and bled,” the records state.

The risk for pathogenic food poisoning, such as E. coli and Salmonella, increases when cattle are treated in such a way because the animals, when dragged, can pick up the dangerous germs from waste products that end up on their hides and can contaminate the chute and surrounding area, according to experts, said the AP. “All kinds of feces and urine get into those chutes because they typically aren’t cleaned out during the day because too many animals need to get in,” said Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinary inspector.

Cargill Meat Solutions appealed the alleged violations and the FSIS rescinded the citations, sending Beef Packers a so-called letter of concern, said the AP. Cargill Meat Solutions is the parent company of Beef Packers.

Salmonella Burger Recipe

2009-08-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Two pounds of contaminated hamburger, allow to sit out at room temperature for 8 hours, just in case.

Hand form into four half pound patties more or less football shaped. Don't wash your hands first.

Cook on real charcoal grill to just past rare, there is no point cooking them well done since heat does not kill the bacteria.

Serve on fresh buns with Immodium Mayo and slices of raw onion and ripe tomato.

Cargill Salmonella Infected Beef Recall 825,769 Pounds

2009-08-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

Back in January Peter Kreitler blogged:

Quoting from a Cargill advertisement I am astounded by the hubris of the copy writers and the company who state in bold letters:

“WE ARE BRINGING RANCH QUALITY BEEF TO GROCERY STORES.”

Then in smaller type:“Supermarkets know that shoppers will judge the quality of an entire store with what they see in the fresh meat department. So savvy grocery chains have turned to Cargill’s branded beef programs to provide their fresh meat departments with products that bring back customers. This is how Cargill works with customers. – collaborate – create – succeed.”

If this is in fact how shoppers judge grocery stores then everybody in California and surrounding states will be on a hunger strike for a while.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that a beef packing facility in Fresno, Calif., is recalling 825,769 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with an antibiotic- resistant form of the Salmonella bacteria. The recalled ground beef products produced by Beef Packers, Inc., "may be linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis" in Colorado. The company is recalling the ground beef it sent to Colorado, Arizona, Utah and sold in California, according to a USDA announcement.

Beef Packers Inc. is owned by Cargill Inc.

The USDA says this strain "is resistant to many commonly prescribed drugs, which can increase the risk of hospitalization or possible treatment failure in infected individuals," the USDA said. "The most common manifestations of salmonellosis are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within eight to 72 hours."

Possible treatment failure = death?

By the way, the USDA does not have the authority to impose recalls, recalls are all voluntary.

Salmonella Burgers - Round 2 - Second Outbreak

2009-08-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2009

GROUND BEEF WARNING: Colorado state health officials, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several other state health departments are investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections that are resistant to several commonly used antibiotics. Experts from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Friday urged Coloradans to avoid ground beef or to cook it carefully to prevent foodborne illness. To date, cases of illness have been identified in nine states. The majority of cases have been reported in Colorado. Preliminary evidence from the multi-state investigation strongly suggests that ground beef is the source of the outbreak, although further investigation is ongoing. Twenty-one illnesses have been reported in Colorado in the following counties: Arapahoe (three), Broomfield (three), Denver (three), Douglas (one), Elbert (one), Garfield (one), Jefferson (four), Mesa (one), Pueblo (one) and Weld (three). For more information about food safety, call the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Consumer Protection Division at 303-692-3620.

Convenience vs Ethics in Food Choices

2009-08-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

My grandpa would have said: What in the Sam Hell are we thinking?

Most cows in the U.S. are on feedlot diets (fed corn and grain instead of grass). As many as 30 percent of them are plagued by acid indigestion, then ulcers, then the bacteria that sets up shop in their livers. Other maladies: dirt eating, diarrhea, polio, convulsions. Adding insult to injury, cows that collapse are electrocuted or forklifted to standing because a "downer" cow cannot be sent to market.

This meat then makes its way to school lunches.

Three-quarters of the nation's antibiotics go straight to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Recently, the USDA's Agricultural Resource Service engineered a vaccine for sick, shipped cows, licensing it to pharmaceutical giant Schering- Plough. We now have two powerhouses feeding off each other and feeding us problems. All these pills and bills seem to be small bandages over our festering food wound.

Grass-fed animals are higher in all kinds of goodnesses: omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid, Vitamin A. They are lower in fat, cholesterol and calories. The risk of E. coli is nearly nil. According to the American Grassfed Association, if a person switched from their average 66.5 pound consumption of feedlot beef to a grass-fed diet, they would reduce their yearly calories by 17,733.

The lesson is that when meat quality slides, it brings morality — the producers', the buyers', the quality controllers' — down with it.

Boss Hog's attempted regulatory coup in North Carolina

2009-08-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

A state commission spent two years crafting rules to monitor water pollution at factory farms -- but a state senator with close ties to the hog industry got his colleagues to unanimously pass a bill nixing those rules. Will the House follow suit?

That lawmakers are so sympathetic to a polluting industry is not altogether surprising considering the enormous clout the corporate agriculture lobby has in North Carolina -- influence that's apparent in bill sponsor Senator Charlie Albertson's record of campaign contributions.

Food Safety Bill Opposed by CAFO Zealots

2009-07-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal reported that lobby groups representing large-scale grain and livestock interests zealously opposed the bill, with the reliably pro-agribusiness House Ag committee chair Collin Peterson pushing their agenda.

The fear is that the bill would give the FDA authority to regulate livestock feed rations—which likely contribute significantly to food safety issues. Outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA) and salmonella seem related to routine doses of antibiotics on livestock farms; and the practice of feeding animals an ethanol byproduct called distillers grains has been linked to both E. coli 0157 outbreaks and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains.

Cattle producers still routinely feed their cows “chicken litter" - chicken shit mixed up with excess feed and other wastes - even though it can contain cow blood meal (which large-scale poultry farmers often feed to chickens).

Though the origins of BSE remain unclear, scientists are convinced that it spreads among cattle through infected feed containing blood-meat-and-bone meal, protein supplements made from the blood and ground-up parts of cows. If the animal being processed is infected, then the meal can transmit the disease to many other animals. It takes only one gram of contaminated material to infect a cow.

“Live animals are not ‘food’ until the point of processing, which is why this bill needs to clarify that the FDA does not have regulatory authority on our farms, ranches and feedlots,” a functionary for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association told the Journal.

Read http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-30-house-food-safety-bill-questions-remain

Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction

2009-07-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

The crisis of factory farming becomes its own solution through the use of industrially produced bacon. We know our industrial food system is killing the planet and killing us with heart disease, diabetes and cancer, but how can we resist when it tastes oh-so-good?

We know this food is killing us slowly with diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But we cannot stop, because we are addicts, and the food industry is the pusher. Even if we could opt out completely (which is almost impossible), it is still our land being ravaged, our water and air being poisoned, our dollars subsidizing the destruction, our public health at risk from bacterial and viral plagues.

Changing our perilous food system means making choices — not to shop for a greener planet, but to collectively dismantle factory farming, giant food corporations and the political system that allows them to exist. It’s a big order, but it’s the only option left on the menu.